They help fold laundry, do early evening chores, help prepare dinner, mix the next day’s bread and tidy their rooms and then bath.

After supper, once the girls clear the dishes and clean the kitchen, we play a family game, watch a DVD or play or read or chat quietly till bedtime at 8pm – 8:30pm.

Evening times are my low-energy times. I need the children to be in their rooms by about 9pm. I read to my younger kids in bed, we whisper and chat and pray together and then lights out. My 11-year-old always reads afterwards for about half an hour.

Some nights I have a good chat with my 16-year-old. She may tell me deep and wonderful things or we have a lovely mother-daughter time. She also loves to read at night.

I tidy the living room and kitchen counters and sink.

Then, finally, I spend time with my farmer hubby who has worked hard outside most the day. Shower, read … and then sleep. Ah!

Routines form the simple pattern in a tapestry.

Shared mealtimes, hard work, simple chores and free time together create the bright and beautiful designs.

Wow, Nadene! It sounds like you are a very organised home-schooling Mom. I was just curious about how you teach your younger two children in that they work on subjects for short periods like 15 or 20 min sessions. I have done the opposite and dedicated each day to two subjects at a time because they take a while to get into each subject. Do you find the shorter segments work better? Does it keep your children interested? How do you help them focus on each subject as they change often?

@Kathleen, we follow Ms. Mason’s principles for short lessons done as well as possible. I find they do stay motivated to do their work well and the seat work doesn’t drag on all morning. We work in files and all their notebook pages are in one place, so we flow quickly from subject to subject. The kids do most spelling practice & drill work on whiteboards and the young kids do their handwriting lessons on a laminated chart – quick and easy! The only workbooks we use are our Singapore Maths books and these lessons take longer.
There is no reason to change your longer lessons if your children enjoy them, stay focused and do their work excellently.

What a lovely analogy the tapestry is! Thanks for sharing your day. Ours is similar except that we’re all prone to walking from one room to another and then wondering why we went in there, which does tend to eat up some school time.🙂

20 minutes on Math….oh, how I wish we could do that! Can you explain *how* you do that. I totally believe in short lessons and use them in many ways in our homeschool but I’ve never accomplished this with math. Thanks for any tips!

Wonderful post today. I’m actually meeting with a homeschooling friend today to go over my schedule once again. I’ve been homeschooling for 4 years and I find that sometimes life gets in the way of the schedule and its so hard to get back to it. Your post today was an inspiration to get my own stuff back in order. Thanks!🙂

Hi Nadine, I have been enjoying your blog. sounds like you & your children really have fun with your homeschooling. I would like to become blogger pals with you so I am going to add yu to my friend’s list.

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